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Wednesday, 2 January 2013

New Year, New Brand - Jacava London - Review

Hi Goddesses

A couple of weeks ago, I was approached by a British nail polish company to review their polish. Interestingly, I had never heard of them before, but they are marketing themselves as a luxury brand. And they're BRITISH !!! So of course I want to get behind them .... Let's have a little bit of background info first - - Opulent nail polish, by JACAVA London, is "free from the nasties" (DBP, Camphor, Formaldehyde & Toluene). - No Animal Testing. - A little treat, where nothing is denied, even the real gold printing on the glass adds subtle luxury.- All JACAVA nail polish uses premium, high gloss and long-lasting formulations to keep your nails looking stunning for longer. - Designed in London and made in the UK, JACAVA is a quintessentially British nail polish brand (look at their logo !!) - the bottle is very unusual - as I will discuss - with a very long wand- the brush has been especially designed to just touch the base of the bottle, so that no polish goes to waste- www.jacava.com and is also available on Amazon- Facebook - HEREAnd here are the pretty colours -

The website also has a fabulous Colour Selector section - http://www.jacava.com/colour-selector.htmlNow, I'll admit, part of my intrigue in reviewing this brand was their price point - £14.50 - that's roughly $20. To put it into British perspective -Barry M = £3 to £4OPI = £10Zoya = £11China Glaze = £7ish£14.50 starts to put this in with the high label polishes like the Chanels and the Diors, which is not the polish I usually buy!

I was delighted that Jacava offered so many Crumpety classics - City Heights, Blueberry Muffin - but decided to go in a different direction. I chose Chillax and the lovely people also sent me Toffee Apple.

Chillax is described as a metallic turquoise. I would slightly disagree, in that it doesn't have the abrasive qualities of a metallic. This is super glossy, like a haute cuisine version of a metallic :)

Now, let me start by saying this has been one of THE hardest polishes I have ever tried to photograph. The light in the room where I normally take my photos was too flat, and levelled this out to an oceanic blue, and that's not fair, because it's only half the story.

This polish has the most amazing electricity in it. It literally does glow from within and this is partly what gives it such a luminous, glossy quality. The colour leans much greener than the photos above, and the only place I could remotely capture the accurate colour of the polish was under some yucky lighting, so you'll have to excuse the peach coloured fingers lol!

This is an indecently intense turquoise. I still wouldn't call it metallic, but it shimmers, it shimmies, it glows and it throws out light beams. Seriously, it's like there's a fairy torch beneath the top layer, shining the light out!

As for Toffee Apple, this is pretty much the perfect red. This is cherry red, not quite ruby and it's just delicious.

I'm not sure why it's called Toffee Apple, as that makes me think of something altogether browner, but it does very much remind me of a red apple.

This is a creme, pure and simple, but oh so perfect. This is glossier than a mane of hair in a hair conditioner advert! I swear I could almost see my reflection in it. Truly, a perfect red, so rich and intense. (Those last photos were taken with a new light set up I'm experimenting with).

So, IS IT WORTH £14.50 ?? Well, I have to say ... quite probably! The polishes glide on effortlessly, honestly, "they corner like they're on wheels" lol. The brush is narrower than an OPI brush, and even me, the messy Crumpet, found that virtually no clean up was required due to how they glide on.The best thing for me though is that wand. I know when I previewed the brand with a few friends, the wand was their first worry. Hopeless Polishaholics, one and all, their first question was - "will it fit in my Helmer?" lol. I don't know, but here's a comparison shot with some other brands.

But yes, the wand is a winner. It is ergonomic perfection in terms of its design, and rests in the perfect position as you're applying your polish. I think this was also one of the reasons for the beautiful application - it's like it's designed to make application as easy as possible.As for the polishes - thumbs up all the way. Utterly gorgeous and glorious. One, super luminous, the other, a true pure glossy dream. I can honestly assure you that I expected to be underwhelmed, but actually, quite the opposite, I would be willing to snap up some more.The only thing I didn't test was the wear time. As most of you know, I change my polish every day anyway, plus I have issues with keeping polish on, so I'm not a good advert for that anyway.

The true test for me is whether I want to keep the polishes I've been sent, and in this case, absolutely. I've already used the red a couple more times since - look out for it on Day 12 of the 31 Day Challenge :)